Lattice and electronic properties of VO ₂ with the SCAN(+U) approach

Appropriate consideration of the electron correlation is essential to reproduce the intriguing metal-insulator transition accompanying the Peierls-type structural transition in VO₂. In the density functional theory-based approach, this depends on the choice of the exchange-correlation functional. Here, using a newly developed strongly constrained and appropriately norm (SCAN) functional, we investigate the lattice and electronic properties of the metallic rutile phase of VO₂ (R-VO₂) from the first-principles calculations. We also explored the role of the Coulomb correlation U. By adding U, we found that the phonon instability properly describes the Peierls-type distortions. The orbital-decomposed density of states presents the orbital selective behavior with the SCAN+U, which is susceptible to the one-dimensional Peierls distortion. Our results suggest that even with the SCAN functional, the explicit inclusion of the Coulomb interaction is necessary to describe the structural transition of VO₂.